Patio of the Week: A Sustainable Focus and Inspiration From Paris
A New Jersey architect addresses an angled lot with familiar shapes and a new pavilion
Struggling to lay out a backyard design that would make sense in their awkwardly shaped lot, this couple enlisted Princeton Design Collaborative, the firm that had helped them with renovations inside their house in the past, to help. “The first time I went to the house, I saw solar panels on the roof and an electric car in the driveway. It was clear that they were sustainably minded,” architect John T. Conroy says.
In addition to having a prettier and more functional yard for grilling and relaxing, the couple wanted to grow their own vegetables, compost, eliminate off-site water runoff, reduce the need for mowing, install a clothesline and add an attractive utility shed. Conroy suggested also collecting rainwater to irrigate the garden.
In addition to having a prettier and more functional yard for grilling and relaxing, the couple wanted to grow their own vegetables, compost, eliminate off-site water runoff, reduce the need for mowing, install a clothesline and add an attractive utility shed. Conroy suggested also collecting rainwater to irrigate the garden.
Before: This was the entrance from the driveway area into the yard along the side of the house. It was a sea of concrete. While the team couldn’t change the house or driveway due to homeowners association (HOA) regulations, they could reduce the amount of impervious surfaces in the side yard and backyard. The concrete they ripped up was taken to a recycler to be ground up and repurposed as fill.
After: Conroy designed an 8-foot-wide gate that emulates the form of the existing shadow box fence that needed to be kept per HOA rules. “Because of the way the pivoting gate was constructed, you can push it open with just a pinkie finger,” he says. The large gate helps create a sense of anticipation to see what’s beyond it. Another French landscape-inspired idea, that of an allée, inspired the path from front to back. An allée is a path in a formal garden flanked by trees or shrubs. The allée-inspired pathway reinforces a strong, straight sightline to the backyard and ends in a focal point — the new pavilion.
The focus on the path and the pavilion takes attention away from odd nooks and crannies along it to the right, some concealed by fencing or lattice and others filled with native plants, such as ‘Snow Flurry’ heath aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’) on the ground and ‘John Clayton’ trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens ‘John Clayton’) growing up a new fence on the right. Hidden behind the fencing is space for the mechanical equipment, trash and recycling containers as well as storage space for the couple’s kayaks.
The architect was also conscious of reducing impermeable surfaces, and designed the yard to contain all runoff water from the house. Cutting into the path with small planted areas helped reduce the amount of impermeable surfaces; the redesign reduced the impermeable surfaces in the yard by 30 percent. And now all of the runoff created by the largest impermeable surface, the home’s roof, goes into a rain collection system to be used on-site.
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The focus on the path and the pavilion takes attention away from odd nooks and crannies along it to the right, some concealed by fencing or lattice and others filled with native plants, such as ‘Snow Flurry’ heath aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’) on the ground and ‘John Clayton’ trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens ‘John Clayton’) growing up a new fence on the right. Hidden behind the fencing is space for the mechanical equipment, trash and recycling containers as well as storage space for the couple’s kayaks.
The architect was also conscious of reducing impermeable surfaces, and designed the yard to contain all runoff water from the house. Cutting into the path with small planted areas helped reduce the amount of impermeable surfaces; the redesign reduced the impermeable surfaces in the yard by 30 percent. And now all of the runoff created by the largest impermeable surface, the home’s roof, goes into a rain collection system to be used on-site.
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Along the left side of the path, a row of ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae (Thuja ‘Green Giant’) provides year-round color and nods to the idea of an allée. In between those trees and the path are ‘Brilliance’ autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’) and ‘Autumn Bride’ alumroot (Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride’), which bring in color and texture. Midway up the path to the right are plants with flowing texture — a mix of ‘Cape Breeze’ switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Cape Breeze’) and bluestar (Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’). The cutouts in the path will soon be filled in with mazus (Mazus reptans) and woolly thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus).
Before: The part of the path that met the house felt cramped and awkward.
After: Conroy added a modern horizontal cedar lattice off the home’s facade to blend the facade into the new landscape. A new garden shed and the adjacent horizontal lattice together screen the view of an awkward corner of the yard.
The homeowners wanted to have a clothesline so they could save energy by reducing dryer usage. The clothesline runs along the fence behind the shed.
The homeowners wanted to have a clothesline so they could save energy by reducing dryer usage. The clothesline runs along the fence behind the shed.
The pavers are a textured concrete that resembles bluestone. The black lamp is fueled by tiki torch fuel.
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Before: Besides concrete, there was a lot of grass that ended in the awkward points formed by the fence at the property lines. “My client complained that he could never get a mower into those points, and he hates mowing the lawn,” Conroy says.
After: The irregular edge of the patio provides a transition to the small lawn. Now there is very little grass to mow. And the lawn’s familiar rectangular shape gives the eye a place to rest. The lawn is the lowest point in the yard, and the grading directs the runoff water to it.
To the left is a triangular planting bed; to the right, the edible garden runs along the side of the house. More modern horizontal cedar latticework around the grill on the right blocks views of the rain barrel from the dining area.
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To the left is a triangular planting bed; to the right, the edible garden runs along the side of the house. More modern horizontal cedar latticework around the grill on the right blocks views of the rain barrel from the dining area.
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Here’s a peek at the plants after they had a chance to grow and get some autumn color. A ‘Cherokee Princess’ flowering dogwood (Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Princess’) provides a focal point at the end of the lawn and a nice view from the dining area on the patio. Rows of ‘Standing Ovation’ little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Standing Ovation’) flank the lawn. In front of those grasses on the left are a favorite of the homeowners’: Red Drift roses (Rosa ‘Meigalpio’). In front of them on the right is the vegetable garden space.
A 430-gallon rain barrel catches the water from the home’s gutters. It has a spigot for a watering hose. The barrel “provides enough water to irrigate all the beds but not the lawn. But the lawn needs little irrigation, as it is the low point in the site for any runoff to collect,” Conroy says.
A spot to store gardening equipment and bicycles was also on the couple’s wish list. “Their existing shed was at the end of its life cycle,” Conroy says. They wanted to replace it with a modern design that fit their yard’s style. “We don’t call this a shed; we refer to it as a utility pavilion,” Conroy says. “And it was important to my clients to use recycled or recyclable materials on it.”
With the right spot picked out to create a focal point and block views of the homeowners’ composting area behind it, next Conroy had to work within the HOA’s 8-foot height limit for outbuildings. In researching ready-made modern sheds with the style his clients liked, Conroy found they started at around $10,000, and the ones that better suited the owners’ style were closer to $20,000. He was able to bring in this one for $7,500 while adding sustainable and unique features he couldn’t find on the market.
“We kept the form a simple classic shed roof and used a few uncommon materials,” he says. He specified Cor-Ten steel siding and a Galvalume roof. Both of these materials require no maintenance and are 100 percent recyclable. The deeply corrugated Cor-Ten steel siding plays off the existing shadow box fencing. Eventually the rusty patina of this siding will turn brown to match the landscape. The Galvalume metal roof reflects the sunlight, keeping the interior of the shed cooler on hot days. Conroy framed the pavilion in reclaimed fir 2-by-4s taken from a garage that had come down during another project.
“We kept the form a simple classic shed roof and used a few uncommon materials,” he says. He specified Cor-Ten steel siding and a Galvalume roof. Both of these materials require no maintenance and are 100 percent recyclable. The deeply corrugated Cor-Ten steel siding plays off the existing shadow box fencing. Eventually the rusty patina of this siding will turn brown to match the landscape. The Galvalume metal roof reflects the sunlight, keeping the interior of the shed cooler on hot days. Conroy framed the pavilion in reclaimed fir 2-by-4s taken from a garage that had come down during another project.
The site was tight, and the contractor saw challenges in staging the landscaping without the added challenge of making room to build the shed on-site. “So we proposed to build the shed off-site as a series of panels, then bolt them together on-site,” Conroy says. The pieces of the pavilion were hauled in on a trailer and put together in a day, allowing the team to complete the landscaping and build the shed simultaneously. The panels are bolted to large angle irons in the corners of the structure. “The purlin details along the edge of the roofline are a cool little feature,” the architect says.
Here is the back side of the utility pavilion. A wide door provides easy access to the equipment inside and lets in the light.
Also letting in the light is a continuous band of polycarbonate panels on the public-facing side of the pavilion.
Now the clients have dining, grilling and gardening spaces, and the lovely gardens surrounding them make sense of the yard’s shape. In addition, they are saving water and preventing nonpoint-source pollution from runoff, and they have a place to dry their clothes sustainably, can store everything they need to maintain the yard in a pavilion that is 100 percent recyclable and have a sunny spot to grow vegetables.
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Now the clients have dining, grilling and gardening spaces, and the lovely gardens surrounding them make sense of the yard’s shape. In addition, they are saving water and preventing nonpoint-source pollution from runoff, and they have a place to dry their clothes sustainably, can store everything they need to maintain the yard in a pavilion that is 100 percent recyclable and have a sunny spot to grow vegetables.
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Yard at a Glance
Who uses it: A sustainably minded couple
Location: Near Freehold, New Jersey
Size: Yard: 2,550 square feet (237 square meters); shed: 64 square feet (5.9 square meters)
Designer: Princeton Design Collaborative, a multidisciplinary firm that includes architects, landscape architects, interior designers and graphic designers
This neighborhood is laid out with shared driveway courts, which resulted in oddly shaped lots. To create a visually pleasing layout, Conroy looked to Paris, another place full of sharp diagonal lines that resulted in the same sort of oddly configured site. Georges-Eugène Haussmann‘s famous plan full of diagonal streets had left hotels and other properties searching for ways to create pleasing landscapes within their awkwardly shaped sites. Their solutions inspired Conroy.
“The idea is to think of the space as one big mass and then carve out identifiable shapes such as squares, rectangles and triangles to create a figure-ground [perception],” he says. In a figure-ground relationship, recognizable figures — in this case, simple shapes — catch the eye, while “ground” refers to the elements that make up the background. In the planting plan, a long allée-inspired path is the first such shape; it leads from the driveway to the seating area, with the new utility pavilion as a focal point. On the other side, a rectangular lawn provides another recognizable shape for eyes to rest upon. These areas are surrounded by plantings that help reinforce the familiar shapes and fill in the spaces between.
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